Capital One just Got Hacked. What To Do.

Once again, another huge financial company, this time, Capital One, just had its customer data breached.  Here are some things that you can do to check to see if you have been hacked and to minimize the damage:

• Look over your credit card and banking statements, and report any suspicious activity to the bank as soon as possible.
• Freeze your credit by going online to one of the three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
• Change your passwords.
• Enable two factor authorization.  This means that you need a password and another form of verification, such as a code from a text or email.
• Sign up for a credit monitoring service, like LifeLock.
• Don’t respond to phone calls or emails from creditors.  Go to their website and contact them using their official channels.

These data breaches are becoming more and more common, so you need to stay vigilant.  You may not be able to completely protect your information from the hackers, but at least you can make it a lot harder for them.

Joe Baker, CFP®
Baker Asset Management, LLC
joebaker@bakerassetmanagement.com